Number of executive actions related to gun control signed by the president

With children who wrote letters to the White House about gun violence in the background, President Barack Obama signs a series of executive orders Wednesday in Washington, D.C., as part of a package of gun control measures. Chip SomodevillA • Getty Images

With children who wrote letters to the White House about gun violence in the background, President Barack Obama signs a series of executive orders Wednesday in Washington, D.C., as part of a package of gun control measures. Chip SomodevillA • Getty Images

WASHINGTON 
Conceding “this will be difficult,” President Barack Obama urged a reluctant Congress on Wednesday to require background checks for all gun sales and ban both military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines in a plea to curb gun violence in America.

The president’s plan, coming one month after the deadly school shootings in Newtown, Conn., marks the most comprehensive effort to tighten gun laws in nearly two decades. But his proposals face a doubtful future in a divided Congress.

Seeking to circumvent at least some opposition, Obama signed 23 executive actions, including orders to make more federal data available for background checks and end a freeze on government research on gun violence. But he acknowledged that the steps he took on his own would have less impact than the broad measures requiring approval from Capitol Hill.

“To make a real and lasting difference, Congress, too, must act,” Obama said, speaking at a White House ceremony accompanied by school children and their parents. “And Congress must act soon.”

The president’s announcements capped a swift and wide-ranging effort, led by Vice President Joe Biden, to respond to the deaths of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But Obama’s gun control proposals set him up for a tough political fight with Congress as he starts his second term, when he’ll need Republican support to meet three looming fiscal deadlines and pass comprehensive immigration reform.

“I will put everything I’ve got into this, and so will Joe,” the president said. “But I tell you, the only way we can change is if the American people demand it.”

Key congressional leaders were tepid in their response to the White House proposals.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, adopted a wait-and-see approach. His spokesman, Michael Steel, said House committees will consider Obama’s proposals and “if the Senate passes a bill, we will also take a look at that.”

But statements from many other Republicans at both ends of the Capitol were far tougher. Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, who has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Obama, condemned what he described as Obama’s “anti-gun sneak attack” and promised a legislative battle to protect “the God-given right to keep and bear arms.”

And Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who last week said he would be open to some form of gun control, said on Wednesday that Obama’s executive actions amounted to a “power grab” to “poke holes in the Second Amendment.”

No Republican lawmakers attended Wednesday’s White House ceremony. The only vestige of bipartisanship came when Obama invoked former President Ronald Reagan. He noted that Reagan, “one of the staunchest defenders of the Second Amendment,” wrote to Congress in 1994 to urge support for the assault-weapons ban.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was committed to ensuring that the Senate will consider gun violence legislation “early this year.” But he did not endorse any of Obama’s specific proposals.